Some 40 years ago, the Les Disques du Crépuscule label issued the From Brussels With Love compilation. If you were lucky enough to find the cassette in the import bins here in the United States in the early Eighties, the set served as a crash-course in not only a bunch of Factory Records artists, but a few others as well. Now reissued in spectacular fashion, and on multiple formats, the compilation stands up fairly well as an overview of a post-punk scene coalescing around certain styles in the U.K. as the anger of the class of 1977 was absorbed into new forms.
From Brussels With Love is ostensibly a Factory comp., but it's stuffed with non-Factory acts as well. And while interviews with Brian Eno and Jeanne Moreau (in French) seem interesting on first listen, they throw off the momentum of the lengthy release. Still, the Factory Records rarities here make up for any missteps made in 1980. The Durutti Column's "Sleep Will Come" is rougher than I'd remembered, but oddly compelling, while "Haystack", a collaboration between Factory legends New Order and Kevin Hewick is brash and oddly funk-y. Elsewhere, producer Martin Hannett up-ends the mellow vibe with the rough "Music Room", while The Names similarly go all-out on "Cat", one of the harshest things here.
Oddly, the tunes that work best on From Brussels With Love in 2020 are those that are not from the famed Manchester-based label. A very early version of "Airwaves" by Thomas Dolby is as lovely as the version we'd hear later on The Golden Age of Wireless, if a bit more DIY, while Bill Nelson's "The Shadow Garden", from Quit Dreaming and Get on the Beam, foreshadows lots of Nelson's instrumental stuff from the late Eighties. Pieces from Harold Budd, Gavin Bryars, and John Foxx, among others, and that Eno interview, make this an essential purchase for anyone interested in ambient and minimalist music of the U.K. from the era, but the tracks sit oddly at times next to the hodge-podge of other selections. From Brussels With Love doesn't always seem as carefully curated as I'd remembered, but within its bag of rarities are quite a few gems, and an overall picture of a scene fondly remembered and missed.
From Brussels With Love is out now via Darla here in the States.